Heather and Anton Mostert, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Exploring Vietnam by bicycle assaults your senses in every way:  the unusual smells, exotic tastes, inspiring scenery and warm friendly people make it an amazing journey that enables you to interact first hand and absorb the culture of this intriguing destination.

Our trip was diversified in every sense:

Cycling the highlands of Northern Vietnam enabled us to meet and interact with the ethnic hill tribe people and enjoy some steep climbs as we rode through the mountainous terrain of rice paddies and tea plantations (undoubtedly one of my highlights because we went so far off the beaten track, and it was an incredibly ‘real’ experience).

Central Vietnam yielded historically important tombs and citadels which gave you a wonderful insight into the Vietnamese culture and past (oh yes, and did I mention the food...?). The ride from Hue to Hoi An was legendry, we rode through the very eerie but intriguing  ‘Valley of Ghosts’  - kilometers of tombs and graveyards, past mushroom farms and up (and up) ‘cloud pass’ as we headed for the beaches of Hoi An.  Our long ride was rewarded with an old trading town steeped in history, with a magical feeling, as the streets and trees are filled with lanterns and a there’s a silk tailor on every doorstep.

The rivers of the Mekong Delta gave us the chance to ‘put our feet up’ and drift along the bussling waterways and through floating markets, but when we got back on our bikes the fun really began as we cycled through the rich fertile lands of the delta on tiny back roads (1m wide at biggest, and a bridge every few meters!) Always an adventure to be had, I narrowly missed a collision with something when an old man threw a coconut at a chicken, the coconut narrowly missed me,  then the shocked chicken narrowly missed me, then the oncoming motorbike carrying 3 pigs swerved when he saw the ensuing chaos and narrowly missed me too!  Unbelievable, and definitely worth a beer.

After plenty of good laughs, lots of ‘bottoms up’ with the rice wine and a boiled chickens claw thrown in for good measure we rounded of a perfect trip with an idyllic few days on the breathtaking beaches of Phu Quock, where we had massages every evening at sunset (3$!!!!), plenty of cocktails and the best seafood barbeques I think I’ve every tasted.

Thank you Steve for organizing the trip of a lifetime.

Heather and Anton Mostert, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Vietnam, January 2010